The Lonely Planet Thorn Tree

A thorn tree is where travellers would traditionally post messages for each other, and that's precisely what happens here on this extraordinarily well run discussion board. You don't need to be a fan of the Lonely Planet guides (which are generally geared to the budget-conscious traveller happy to rough it) to benefit from the authoritative information here and if you have any question about exotic foods, registering at this site will prove well
worthwhile.



The discussion boards are divided in several ways - by area and country, by topic and so on. You could, for example, post questions and swap recipes with people on the food discussion board, or head instead to a country-based one with specific queries regarding rare dishes and
ingredients. We found the latter more successful and received myriad informative responses to posts on African and South American food. Best of
all, responses are emailed direct to you via the site, so you don't have to keep checking to see who has responded or with what information.
There's the occasional sarcastic response by someone trying to be clever - it was ever thus - but for the most part folk are extremely friendly, helpful and chatty. It's a great way to make online friends with people
living throughout the world who have similar interests.



Elsewhere at www.lonelyplanet.com, which is attractively designed and easy to navigate, you can find summary guides to countries throughout the world - an excellent source of quick, basic reference information should you be planning a trip. A very slick site indeed, especially considering the sheer quantity of valuable information.